Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his opponent Peter Marki-Zay organized two rival marches in Budapest on Tuesday, two and a half weeks before uncertain legislative elections.
More than 100,000 people marched on this national holiday for the “peace march” organized by the sovereignist leader, AFP journalists noted.
In the camp opposite, the crowd was smaller: several thousand demonstrators had made the trip.
Polls point to a tight April 3 poll, with a campaign dominated by the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
In front of a crowd of supporters waving “no to war” banners, Viktor Orban, 58, called for a vote “for peace and security”.
“We must stay out of this conflict, we have nothing to gain, everything to lose,” he said.
Choose Europe
Mr. Orban, who has cultivated since his return to power in 2010 his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, refuses to deliver arms to Ukraine, while voting for European Union sanctions as his partners.
An approach that seems to be paying off: the latest forecasts from the institutes show that the ruling party is increasing its lead over the unprecedented alliance of six opposition parties.
We gotta stay out of this conflict, we got nothing to gain, everything to lose
“It’s not our fight, Hungary can only stay safe by standing aside,” 53-year-old Janos Bacskai told AFP.
A few kilometers away, Peter Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old conservative mayor who won the opposition primaries, castigated the policy of rapprochement with Moscow.
On the way to the parade, activists had affixed stickers to posters of Fidesz, the party of Viktor Orban, pinning down the pro-Russian position of the Prime Minister.
The choice “has never been easier,” Mr. Marki-Zay insisted. We must do “that of Europe, not of the East”.
It’s not our fight, Hungary can only stay safe by standing apart
The leader of the Polish opposition, Donald Tusk, invited to the rally, judged that “capitulating to Vladimir Putin was not the solution”, reproaching Mr. Orban for having long “taken the side of the Russian president by blindness or mercantile reasons”.
The government has signed a mega-deal with Russian state giant Rosatom to increase the capacity of one of its nuclear power plants and another with energy giant Gazprom for long-term gas delivery.
Speakers also blamed the Hungarian prime minister for runaway inflation, at its highest in 15 years, and the collapse of the forint, the local currency.